Inspecting surfaces of large components is essential for many applications, such as forming composite materials or, more specifically, fiber-reinforced materials. Typically, precision of an inspection tool is inversely proportional to its field of measurement. In other words, an inspection tool with a smaller field of measurement produces a more precise measurement than a tool with a larger field of measurement. At the same time, a smaller field of measurement results in a smaller inspected area during each scan.
While multiple inspection tools can be used in parallel for inspection of large surfaces, simultaneous operation of these tools can be challenging. For example, two adjacent inspection tools operating at the same time can interfere with each other. This interference can be particularly severe with optical inspection tools that may have overlapping fields of measurements to ensure inspection of the entire surface. As such, methods and systems for inspecting large surfaces using multiple scanners in a precise, accurate, and efficient manner are needed.